Fordyce Castle

Fordyce Castle, dated 1592, is a small three-storey and attic tower house featuring a four-storey jamb that forms an L-plan, with a significant addition from around 1700 at the north gable. The structure is built of heavily pointed random rubble with ashlar dressings and margins. A doorway located in the re-entrant angle, created by a projecting stair tower, has a moulded surround and a small blind niche above with a dated lintel. Another doorway on the main elevation leads to a vaulted undercroft, which is flanked by slit vents.

A shallow rounded corbelled stair turret projects from the first floor height in the re-entrant angle, featuring banded corbelling decorated with variations of cable moulding in diminishing courses that terminate with a foliated stop. The southwest and northeast angles have depressed bartizan turrets with corbelled bases, small gun loops, small windows, and conical roofs made of local slate topped with apex finials.

The front elevation has an enlarged first-floor window under a relieving arch, illuminating the first-floor hall, while a similar window in the south gable has been blocked. The single second-floor window on the front elevation breaks the wallhead under a swept dormer, and all other windows are very small and randomly placed. Decorative gun loops are present on all elevations and at all levels. The large windows have 12-pane glazing, the small ones have 4-pane glazing, and there are slit lights in the stair turret. The roof is covered with Banffshire slate and features squat coped ridge and end stacks.

The circa 1700 addition is a two-storey and attic, four-bay wing that projects from the north gable and is harled. It has three ground floor doorways, with the main entrance located in the outer right bay of the first floor, accessed by an external forestair. There are three small first-floor windows with 9-pane glazing and three later gabled dormers that break the wallhead with 12-pane glazing. The addition has a crowstepped gable and squat coped end and ridge stacks. The interior of the castle has little of interest remaining.